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Thursday, 7 April 2016

Whittingdale - Now The Full Story

After Nick Mutch’s revelations last week in a Byline Media post about Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, his more than year-long relationship with a known prostitute, and the inability of our free and fearless press to say anything about it at the same time as he was doing their bidding and stalling on Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, there was some pushback and general scepticism over the veracity of the story.

If it was not in the press, it could not be a worthwhile story. There was insufficient public interest. It was a consensual relationship. What possible security implications could there be? The questions kept coming, but the story and the risks were real enough, and now there is a new project at Byline Media being undertaken by James Cusick, former political correspondent of the Independent, who is going to spill the beans - all of them.

Titled “WHITTINGDALE : HOW FLEET STREET BOSSES BURIED A SCANDAL AND GOT THEIR MAN INTO CAMERON'S CABINET”, and subtitled “The full inside account of the story everyone wants to read, but no one wants to write”, Cusick’s project expands on Nick Mutch’s post by detailing the cover-up undertaken by the press.

Cusick spells it out: “IS JOHN WHITTINGDALE fit to be Britain’s Culture Secretary? Is there any critical information that should have made David Cameron think twice before bringing him into the cabinet? Should he be making key decisions that affect the future of the BBC and the national press? Four national newspaper groups hold the answers to these questions. Yet no one has published anything and each have their reasons for wanting to keep Mr Whittingdale exactly where he is”.

As I pointed out last weekend, it’s not just about Whittingdale’s dalliance with Olivia King - although, as I’ll show, that would be serious enough on its own - but the way the larger part of the Fourth Estate has effectively conspired to get him into his current ministerial berth and keep him there. This serves two purposes: stalling on the Leveson proposals, and doing the press’ bidding by taking the axe to the hated BBC.

It gets worse: note that Cusick talks of “Four national newspaper groups”. Zelo Street can reveal that the number of newspapers that spiked the Whittingdale story is greater than four. And it gets worse still: it can also be revealed that Whittingdale was in his relationship with Olivia King at the same time as she was also seeing a known gangster.

How significant is that? Put it this way: the individual concerned was convicted of a firearms offence after the Metropolitan Police discovered a machine gun in the back of his car. That is why the Profumo parallel was being made, and why Whittingdale’s behaviour could have constituted a serious security risk.

James Cusick will probably be ostracised by many in the press for his actions, such is their perverse elevation of Omertà over honesty and openness. But you can help his cause, and that of genuinely open journalism, by supporting the project HERE.

Cusick intends to publish on Sunday. Then we can see the extent of the cover-up.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Without dismissing this scandal (and it is a serious one) I think the Profumo comparison is a red herring. Profumo was Minister for War, and had access to nuclear weapons secrets (among other varieties of classified defence information) and his dalliance was with a woman (who was not a prostitute) who was sleeping with a Soviet spy, which was obviously a major threat to UK/US security.

Again, that's not to dismiss this scandal, but it's clearly of a different character and complexion, and trying to force it to fit another narrative could be counterproductive because it gives so many openings for hostile critics to downplay its significance.

The Daily Mail today is pontificating about the public's "right to know" about the dalliances of a media celebrity but is failing to report this story. Is Mr Dacre a hypocrite or is Mr Dacre a hypocrite?

I couldn't care less what people do in the privacy of sex life between consenting adults. It might be worth a chuckle or two, but nothing else.

But there is a difference where this sordid matter is concerned: That is, as Tim rightly points out, our corrupt media have deliberately sought to conceal the whole absurd business to provide political advantage. Since Whittingdale is in public life it is he who gained advantage. Which of course makes it an issue for the general public.

Apart from that, I find some amusement in the notion of a dominatrix in black leather knocking seven bells out of Whittingdale's arse with a rolled up issue of the Financial Times. Each to his/her own I say. Except of course for political corruption.

The point is, the more one sees of the Bullingdon gang the more one realises they are not only as socially warped than we imagined......they're even more warped than we can imagine.